Some employers are now permitting employees to work from home–while others are requiring it. In some jurisdictions (California and Illinois, for example) employers are required to reimburse employees for employment expenses. This may create the need for employers to reimburse employees for the cost of maintaining a home office. Further, the FLSA does not permit an employer to require an employee to pay for business expenses if doing so would reduce the employee’s earnings to below the minimum wage.

How does an employer’s reimbursement or failure to reimburse an employee’s expenses impact a taxpayer’s business expense deductions?

The tax treatment of an employee’s business expenses depends on whether the employee is reimbursed for them by the employer. The IRC provides that expenses paid or incurred by the taxpayer, in connection with the performance of services as an employee, under a reimbursement or other expense allowance arrangement with the employer are deductible in full from gross income, to arrive at adjusted gross income, so long as the expenses otherwise qualify as business expense deductions.1 Generally, this deduction will be available only to the extent that the reimbursement is includable in the employee’s gross income.2
Read More